17 June 2004 Edition

Success suits Bairbre de Brún. Having secured an impressive 144,541 first preference votes in the European election, confidence and composure immediately replaced the more careful deliberation of her election campaign. A visibly relaxed de Brún came to King's Hall podium to reiterate her party's support for the Good Friday Agreement. Free article

The Taoiseach's frank admission that the Government lost the election and that Sinn Féin were the winners was the most significant of all the commentary that has followed the local and European polls. It was Fianna Fáil's worst election since the 1920s and their TDs are worried about their seats. On Tuesday the backbenchers paraded to the plinth of Leinster House to talk to the media and blame the PDs for Fianna Fáil's election drubbing. Free article

Over 60 new councillors, more than 30 poll toppers and significant vote gains across the 26 Counties. This was the news from the Sinn Féin performance in the 2004 local elections, as the party made gains in 31 out of the 33 city and county councils in which it fielded candidates. So who topped the poll, who was re-elected and who are the new Sinn Féin councillors? Free article

As new Sinn Féin councillors were elected throughout the 26 Counties, the scale of the party's growth across the island was registered most strongly in the EU election results. In the Six Counties, Sinn Féin polled as the largest nationalist party for the third consecutive election and Bairbre de Brún was elected as an MEP just hours after Mary Lou McDonald had become the party's first MEP in the early hours of Monday morning. Free article

Last weekend, Bertie Ahern surmised that Sinn Féin had won the election and Fianna Fáil had lost it. Well and good. But there was one election the FF/PD coalition won - the citizenship referendum. Free article

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Three Irishmen acquitted of training FARC rebels in Colombia have left jail, six weeks after their trial. Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan were found guilty of travelling on false passports and have paid a fine for that offence.
The men were driven out of La Modelo prison in the capital Bogota in two cars, under heavy police protection, late on Tuesday afternoon. However, they are still not free to leave Colombia and return home. Magistrates have ruled that they should remain in the country pending an appeal by the prosecution against the verdict on the main charges. Free article

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